In his New York congregation were many of the best brains and fervent hearts to be found in that city, and some of the leading laymen revered him as their spiritual father.

Sometimes he was betrayed into eccentricities, and his vivid imagination often carried him away into discursive flights; yet he never soared out of sight of Calvary's cross, and never betrayed the precious Gospel committed to his trust.
The first time that I ever saw Henry Ward Beecher was in 1848.

He was then mustering his new congregation in the building once occupied by Dr.
Samuel H.Cox.It was a weekly lecture service that I attended, by invitation of a lady who invited me to "go and hear our new-come genius from the West." The room was full, and at the desk stood a brown-cheeked young man with smooth-shaved face, big lustrous eyes, and luxuriant brown hair--with a broad shirt collar tied with a black ribbon.

His text was "Grow in Grace," and he gave us a discourse that Matthew Henry could not have surpassed in practical pith, or Spurgeon in evangelical fervor.
I used to tell Mr.Beecher that even after making full allowance for the novelty of a first hearing, I never heard him surpass that Wednesday evening lecture.

He was plucking the first ripe grapes of his affluent vintage; his "pomegranates were in full flower, and the spikenard sent forth its fragrance." The very language of that savory sermon lingers in my memory yet.
During my ministry in New York--from 1853 to 1860--I became intimate with Mr.Beecher and spoke beside him on many a platform and heard him in some of his most splendid efforts.